Effective Friday, Alberta is expanding COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to those in the rest of Phase 2C and 2D, including any Albertan 50 or over and any First Nations, Métis and Inuit Albertan 35 or older.
The province says that will mean, as of April 30, more than 650,000 Albertans can book appointments at participating pharmacies, 811 or Alberta Health Services clinics.
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Alberta reveals who’s eligible for Phase 2B and 2C of COVID-19 vaccine rollout
The following people are eligible under Phase 2C and 2D:
- Staff and residents who provide care or support to Albertans in facilities previously not offered immunization, including front-line disability workers and workers in group homes, mental health or addiction treatment, children and youth group care, and campus-based care like secure services and other types of licensed supportive living.
- Caregivers of Albertans who are most at risk of severe outcomes, including:
- Designated family support people of those individuals in long-term care, designated supportive living and licensed supportive living facilities.
- Household contacts and caregivers to those who have profoundly immunocompromised conditions.
- Parents or guardians of children under 12 who have an eligible chronic condition (Phase 2B) but are unable to receive vaccine due to age.
- Front-line policing and provincial sheriffs who interact with residents at shelters, correctional facilities and remand centres, Canadian Border Security Agency staff and firefighters.
- Albertans between the ages of 50 and 64.
- First Nations, Métis and Inuit between the ages of 35 and 49.
AHS will contact eligible home care individuals for their immunizations, or individuals can call 811 to discuss options, the province said in a news release Thursday.
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Proof of eligibility is required for immunization of staff of eligible facilities and designated support persons, including:
- Staff of congregate facilities, proof of employment (such as a letter from their employer).
- Designated family support persons, a letter from the congregate living facility (e.g., group home, specialty schools, etc.) is required.
An honour system approach will be used for household contacts of profoundly immunocompromised individuals and children under 12 with high-risk medical conditions, the province said.
The government said, with this expansion, more than 2.8 million Albertans will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
“By opening up the rest of Phase 2C, as well as Phase 2D, we are now able to offer vaccines to another half a million Albertans,” Premier Jason Kenney said.
“Every day, we are protecting more vulnerable Albertans. Soon, we will be able to go on to protect all adult Albertans in Phase 3, as long as we receive the vaccine supply we’ve been promised.”
As of April 27, 1,497,256 doses of vaccine have been administered in Alberta.
Anyone eligible in Phase 1, 2A, 2B or the first part of 2C continue to be eligible and the province is encouraging them to book vaccination appointments.
The province said details about Phase 3 of the rollout will be released “in the coming weeks.”
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health will provide updated COVID-19 case numbers, hospitalizations and variant cases at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
Her news conference will be streamed live in this post.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Hinshaw said Alberta has 20,721 active COVID-19 cases — the second-highest total since the pandemic began.
As of Wednesday, that number had risen to 20,938. Sixty-three per cent of active COVID-19 cases involved variants of concern.
On Wednesday, Alberta Health said 1,839 new COVID-19 cases had been identified in the last 24 hours. Over the same time period, nearly 19,000 tests were done, putting Alberta’s positivity rate at 9.7 per cent.
There are 643 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 145 of whom are being treated in ICUs.
Alberta Health said six additional deaths due to COVID-19 had been reported over the last 24 hours. All six were men and five included comorbidities.
In a news conference Wednesday, Kenney announced changes to vaccine rollout for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and Banff, the two regions experiencing the highest rates of COVID-19 in Alberta.
Alberta’s Johnson & Johnson vaccine shipment, expected to be received next Monday, will be directed to the two regions.
An eligibility age of 30+ years will be set for AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson for those regions. The current age for AstraZeneca eligibility is 40+ years in Alberta.